Michael Jordan showed complete confidence when told how an NBA team defended against Shaquille O’Neal.
Having enjoyed a highly successful career in the NBA, Jordan is often considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time ahead of icons like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and O’Neal.
In his 15 season long career, ‘His Airness’ won six NBA titles, was a five-time MVP, six-time NBA finals MVP and holds a 6-0 record in those MVP finals.
And, in an old clip from his playing days, Jordan has displayed the elite mindset needed for such success as he responded to being told how an NBA team defends against O’Neal.
In the clip, Jordan is asked: “You know how much it takes to guard Shaq? And to try to push that motherf***** around down there?”
To which the NBA icon calmly responds: “I ain’t Shaq.”
The man telling him about how Utah Jazz have struggled against O’Neal continues to try and explain his point, but Jordan keeps level-headed and repeatedly interrupts him to remind him that he is even better than Shaq.
O’Neal became an NBA champion four times during his career, the first three between 2000 and 2002 with the LA Lakers, and again in 2006 with Miami Heat.
Despite this, O’Neal humbly ruled himself out of the conversation regarding the greatest NBA player of all time, instead pointing to Jordan, James and Bryant.
Speaking on The Old Man and The Three podcast, he said: “I get jealous that my name is not in that greatest of all time, but I come from an era of if it’s not dominantly for sure, don’t mention my name.
“Of course we have a lot of different categories. The most dominant category, I’m him. You can only say one other name and I don’t want to hear nobody else’s name.
“The greatest of all time, I would like to be in that conversation, but if it’s not definite? When you talk about LeBron and Mike, it’s definite, and Kobe should be added to that.
“I want to be in that conversation but if I’m not in that conversation, I don’t want no f*****g considerations.”